Currently, use of bioethanol is increasing worldwide. However, rapid increase in bioethanol production is an issue of concern in food production since bioethanol is mainly produced from sugar cane juice and corn starch, i.e. food. Our efforts are therefore focusing on developing technologies for a nonfood-to-ethanol process. Bioprocess for cellulosic ethanol is typically composed of four steps as below:

<Schematic representation of cellulosic ethanol production process>

Composition of inhibitory compounds in saccharified sugar solution varies depending on combinations of feedstocks and employed pretreatment methods. In general approach to optimize process operation for cellulosic ethanol production, the three parts (feedstock, pretreatment, and fermentation) are required to develop comprehensively. In contrast, growth-arrested bioprocess can be flexibly applied to various combinations of feedstocks and pretreatment methods because our process, growth-arrested bioprocess, exhibits high tolerance to inhibitory compounds.